It’s like having an unemployed big brother who steals your babysitting money just cause he’s bigger than you. The state forcibly borrows the locals property tax or gas tax or whatever in order balance their budget rather than making cuts. Then the locals have to cut services because they don’t have any younger siblings to steal from, despite making as much or more money. It’s a commonly held belief that Souther Cal, and San Diego in particular sends far more money to sacramento than it gets back. I believe it was Agoston Hazarthy who in the mid 1850’s, who was from San Diego, just as the state began, who put a motion on the assembly floor to split California into two states, Southern and Northern, if failed but it’s been a good idea for so cal in the 150+ years since. Somehwere in Sacramento there is probably a bridge that your property taxes paid for.